MUMBAI: A big-bang launch, cocktailed with a marketing blitz, two popular stars, and a peak timeslot of 9 pm, is part of Sony Entertainment Television’s plan for its latest show ‘Reporters’.

‘Reporters’ presents a time when the country’s perceptions, opinions and decisions are being shaped by the world of television news. While news-making forms the backdrop, the love story between the lead protagonists forms the crux.

Indeed, the show offers variety, popular stars (Kritika Kamra and Rajeev Khandelwal), a new kind of story (romance in the newsroom), marketing across all fronts, and a film director (Goldie Behl) to helm it.

Ormax Media co-founder and CEO Shailesh Kapoor says, “A regular soap would have been problematic, but Sony has done a good job by bringing some variety and differentiation.”

For Helios MD Divya Radhakrishnan, it is more about the content than the time slot. “People have become good content chasers and even if you deliver good content at 6 or 11 pm, they will consume it.”

The 8–10 pm weekday band is the most difficult slot for a Hindi general entertainment channel. Three years back, SET was No 2 with ‘Bade Ache Lagte Hai’ at 10 pm

. Prior to that, it had aired ‘KBC’ at 9 pm, followed by ‘Indian Idol’. It was these disruptions that worked for the channel back then. The launch of the show coinciding with the ongoing IPL season could be beneficial to Sony.

“A big advantage they have now is the IPL as the matches are between 8 and 11 pm, and the channel will use the match inventory to promote the show.

It is an interesting time to launch the show, as it will ensure maximum sampling since audiences of all age groups watch the match,” says an official of a rival channel.

Moreover, as Kapoor says, the impact of the IPL on primetime viewership has been waning over the years.

The cricket league impacts only 10–15 per cent of viewership, which is not much as audiences now watch the matches in jumps rather than missing their daily soap, he explains.